Grande Mestre Suassuna

(Reynaldo Ramos Suassuna, born in 1938) is the creator of our group Cordão De Ouro. He is one of the most influential Mestres of Capoeira in the world, and has had a monumental career, being one of the main figures responsible for the contemporary Capoeira we see today.

Mestre Suassuna started Capoeira in Itabuna, Bahia in 1957/58, later joining Mestre Bimba’s academy in Salvador. He performed in Salvador with other legends of Capoeira such as Mestre Canijiquinha and Mestre Waldemar, and soon opened a small academy in Itabuna.

In 1965, Mestre Suassuna moved to São Paulo and in 1967 he created the Cordão de Ouro Capoeira group together with Mestre Brasilia in Vila Mariana.

Training with the likes of Mestre Waldemar, Mestre Pastinha and Mestre Bimba, he enjoyed learning all the aspects of Capoeira (something that he still teaches to all of his pupils) taking all that he liked from other people's styles and techniques and using it in his own game. He was known for his amazing agility, technique, speed of execution, sense of humor, and creativity.

Contra-Mestre Mascote

Mascote has had over 15 years practising the art, since 2001, and over 10 years of professional experience teaching and performing Capoeira, since 2006. Mascote has directed, conducted workshops, and performed in numerous international festivals and arts events worldwide, to great acclaim, and is internationally recognised, having taught and performed all over Europe, and as far away as Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia and, of course, Brazil.

Mascote started his career as a young professional actor from 1996 – 2004, performing in various theatre and television productions, as part of “Stagecoach” in the Marlowe theatre in Canterbury, and the “Central Junior Television workshops” in Carlton TV studios in Nottingham (famous for the successes of Samantha Morton, Shane Meadows & Toby Kebbell).

Then, after 3 years intensive Capoeira training, and his first trip to Brazil in 2003, Mascote fell in love with this fine Brazilian art form, and decided to study it further. From 2004 – 2005, he spent 12 months training and travelling full time in Brazil, under the famous “Cordao de Ouro” Capoeira School, with the Great Mestre Suassuna.

When he returned from Brazil, Mascote started his undergraduate degree in Sociology at the University of Nottingham, writing his final dissertation thesis on the Sociology of Capoeira. This has really allowed him to put his multi-cultural experience into a wider perspective, and all his work has a highly sociological background.

In 2008, after several other projects, Mascote moved to Birmingham and founded his own branch of the Cordao de Ouro Capoeira School, which he called CDOB.

Mascote has taught and performed in various institutions over the years, including resident teaching and performing work at The Dancexchange (2009-2014), including teaching for their Centre for Advanced Training; various activities at the University of Birmingham, including ‘Brazilian Folk’, a piece of musical and physical theatre, which Mascote directed and choreographed; the Drum arts centre in both performance and event management; the Midland Arts Centre, as part of the International Dance Festival Birmingham 2014; and the University of Nottingham Mental Health Institute, hosting a research project into Creative Practice as Mutual Recovery in 2015.

Mascote founded the first International Capoeira Festival Birmingham, in 2010, which aims annually to engage public participation of up to 150 Capoeiristas from across the globe, & has hosted world famous guest master artists such as: Mestre Jogo de Dentro, Mestre Acordeon & Grande Mestre Suassuna.

In 2014/5, Mascote opened the first “Cordao De Ouro” Capoeira studio/academy in Birmingham, the first of its kind in England, which is dedicated solely to the promotion, distribution, education and performance of Capoeira, the Brazilian music, movement, martial art.

Most recently, in 2017, Mascote was invited by the Playbox Theatre in Warwick to become an associate artist - a means of recognising his work as being important, and highly valuable as a mentor to the young people in the company.

Contra-Mestra Joyce

Joyce Rodrigues Peres has been involved in Capoeira and Brazilian arts since she was a young child in Brazil. Growing up in São Paulo, one of the largest cities in Latin America, gave her a global perspective and access to many different cultures and cultural contexts.

She has been heavily involved in Capoeira for 20 years and has been training and travelling with the art for 16 years.

Her first experiences were with her brother and her first teacher in the suburbs, where she trained for 3 years with Mestre Xuxo who is from the same suburb as Joyce. When he left to work with Capoeira in Europe Joyce began her training under the guidance of Grande Mestre Suassuna in the centre of São Paulo at Cordão de Ouro head quarters.

She has been a disciple of Mestre Suassuna for 10 years in Brazil and in 2014 she moved to the UK and co-founded the first Brazilian Cultural Centre CDOB in Birmingham. Since she has been here in Europe she has been under very high demand, travelling almost every weekend to different festivals in various countries to teach and perform.

Joyce is one of the top female Cordão de Ouro Capoeiristas in Europe and in 2013 she graduated in the first ever all female Cordão de Ouro formatura of Capoeira professors held in Ilhéus Bahia and run by Mestre Suassuna himself. Her years of experience and her international travels have given her a unique view of how Capoeira and Brazilian arts have been developed globalised taught and performed worldwide.

In 2015 Joyce was invited to partake in the "this girl can" project in Birmingham celebrating active women and celebrating international women's day. This resulted in her creating a new festival which has become an annual success. "Maria do Camboata" is a weekend festival hosted in Birmingham designed to engage women (and men) to celebrate International women's day, and some of the worlds top female Capoeira artists. The event has participants of all genders and backgrounds from across the globe, and the female artists who teach and perform also share their personal experiences and cultural contexts. This event has become a huge inspiration and sparked many further projects to provoke a better understanding of how culture and the arts can be a means for social change. ​